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11 St. Thomas L. Rev. 15 (1998-1999)
Chevron Doctrine in Federal Indian Law and the Agencies' Duty to Interpret Legislation in Favor of Indians: Did the EPA Reconcile the Two in Interpreting the Tribes as States Section of the Clean Water Act

handle is hein.journals/stlr11 and id is 21 raw text is: THE CHEVRON DOCTRINE IN FEDERAL INDIAN LAW AND THE AGENCIES' DUTY TO INTERPRET LEGISLATION IN FAVOR OF INDIANS: DID THE EPA RECONCILE THE TWO IN INTERPRETING THE TRIBES AS STATES SECTION OF THE CLEAN WATER ACT? ALEX TALLCHIEF SKIBINE* Indian tribes never used to be mentioned in federal legislation of general applicability.' This conspicuous silence has led some of us to question whether these acts were even applicable to Indian tribes within their reservations.2 Starting in the 1980s, Congress began to amend some of these laws and in this process, had to decide how and to what extent these acts were going to be applicable to Indian tribes. One such amended act was the Clean Water Act (CWA).4 Section 518(e) of the CWA authorizes the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to treat tribes as states to the degree necessary to carry out the objectives of this section but * Professor of Law, University of Utah College of Law. J.D. 1976, Northwestern University. I would like to thank Professors Siegfried Wiessner of St. Thomas University School of Law and Kirke Kickingbird of Oklahoma City University School of Law for inviting me to speak at the Symposium. My appreciations also to the members of the St. Thomas Law Review for their diligent work in editing the Article. This Article was made possible by the University of Utah College of Law's Development Fund. 1. See generally Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970 (OSHA), Pub. L. No. 91-596, 84 Stat. 1590 (1970); Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967 (ADEA), Pub. L. No. 90- 202, 81 Stat. 602 (1967); Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA), 29 U.S.C. §§ 1001-1461 (1994); National Labor Relations Act of 1988 (NLRA), 29 U.S.C. §§ 151-169 (1994). 2. See generally Vicki J. Limas, Application of Federal Labor Laws and Employment Statutes to Native American Tribes: Respecting Sovereignty and Achieving Consistency, 26 ARIZ. ST. L.J. 681, 681-82 (1994); Alex Tallchief Skibine, Applicability of Federal Laws of General Application to Indian Tribes and Reservation Indians, 25 U.C. DAVIS L. REV. 85, 88 (1991). 3. See generally Judith Royster & Rory Snow Arrow Fausett, Control of the Reservation Environment: Tribal Primacy, Federal Delegation, and the Limits of State Intrusion, 64 WASH. L. REV. 581, 613, 619-28, 647 (1989). See also Safe Drinking Water Act of 1974 (SDWA), Pub. L. No. 93-523, 88 Stat.-1660 (codified as amended at 42 U.S.C. §§ 300f-300j (1994)); Clean Air Act Amendments of 1990, Pub. L. No. 101-549, 104 Stat. 2464 (codified as amended at 42 U.S.C. §§ 7401-7671 (1994)); Clean Water Act, Pub. L. No. 95-217, 91 Stat. 1566-1611 (1977). 4. Pub. L. No. 100-4 (codified as amended at 33 U.S.C. § 1377 (1988)). See generally James M. Grijalva, Tribal Governmental Regulation of Non-Indian Polluters of Reservation Waters, 71 N.D. L. REV. 433, 438 (1995).

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